These Pennsylvania Lottery Mascot Costumes Were Poorly Thought Out

By cwaltersSeptember 26, 2008

Quinto is a new lottery game from Pennsylvania, and their mascot is a bunch of fingers, we’re guessing. We can’t figure out how these mascot costumes made it from concept to on-the-street reality, though. We like how the guy in this photo seems to be thinking, “What exactly am I posing with?”

Anyone involved with the concept/production of these mascots and didn’t utter the question “Do these look too much like giant basketball playing penises?” should be fired, plain and simple. I’m not in advertising/marketing/promotions but seems like a rule of thumb would be to never have a mascot that can be mistaken for genitals, unless you’re in the sausage/hotdog/sex toy industry.

The ad agency I worked for (many, many years ago) had the PA Lottery Account, and you will never meet a more inbred-clueless-outoftouch-ignorantandproudofit bunch of nepotists than the committee that runs it. The double-entendre and inappropriateness of these mascots barely made a sound as it passed over their heads at 35000 feet.

In cases like this I like to think that there’s someone like me out there who floats this idea as a kind of joke, then can’t believe when it gets picked up, and sits there muttering “oh please oh please” under their breath as it inches from conception to actuality.

These mascot things could have been copied by one of two sources. Its got a North Korea “glorious leader Kim Jong il happy smile time” vibe/odor. Also reminds me of a Mr. Show skit about two guys pitching a new mascot idea called “Pit-Pat” Its this small grey doll, “a magical pan sexual non-threating spokesthing”!

These Penn Lottery people need a few more credit hrs of graphic art and marketing before they green light another marketing campaign.